google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, November 8, 2019, Jeffrey Wechsler

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Nov 8, 2019

Friday, November 8, 2019, Jeffrey Wechsler

Title: To B? Yes!

A quick turn around for me with another Friday JW special. This is an add a letter puzzle with the simplicity and consistency that are hallmarks of his work. "B" is added to the first word of the 1st and 3rd theme fill and to the last word of the 2nd and 4th. The resulting fill is very amusing and clued to enhance the humor. But the touch that makes this a Jeffrey creation- each word that has the added letter originally started with a "U." This is the least used of the vowels, so I guess it was chosen to make the puzzle more of a challenge to create. In our afternoon at the airport, we did not discuss this puzzle, but he did mention challenging himself. While I did not discuss the changed clues, I did ask about a few. As always, Jeffrey has variety and some Will Shakespeare, as well as much fun sparkle like: ADULATE, BANK JOB, CRUELLA, ETERNAL, FLEECED, GO BELOW, HINGE ON, HOWARDS, LAST ONE, MODESTY, RETORTS, SANDFLY, and READ A POST which is introduced to the LAT here.

17A. Total confusion at the creamery?: BUTTER CHAOS (11).  This is a fun image with all kinds of slapstick being churned up.

30A. Foot condition seen in oaters?: WESTERN BUNION (13).  The slight outlier, as the pronunciation of the added B-word is changed. I was in my 40s before I knew a bunion is a painful bony bump that develops on the inside of the foot at the big toe joint.

35A. Comparison of a motorcoach to all other travel options?: BUS VERSUS THEM (13). I also think this is pretty funny.

52A. Barista's occupational hazards?: COFFEE BURNS (11). Our local Starbucks staff are more careful than that.

 Across:

1. Long-nosed fish: GAR. Gar, is any of seven species of large North American fishes of the genera Atractosteus and Lepisosteus, in the family Lepisosteidae.

4. Took to the cleaners: FLEECED. A subtle CSO to me and the Golden Fleece.

11. With 29-Down, anticipates potential trouble: HAS. 29D. See 11-Across: AN OUT. The escape route.

14. Burns wrote one on a louse: ODE.  This POEM talks about how we are all equal to a louse.

15. "After this, no more questions": LAST ONE. Is this your clue Jeffrey? See how demanding I am now that he cooperated once. JW's response:  My clue: When it’s gone, you’re left empty-handed. 

16. Tahiti, to Gauguin: ILE. French.

19. Actor Cage, casually: NIC. He changed his name to Nicolas Cage (no H, just like his birth name Nicolas Coppola) after the comic book anti-hero LUKE CAGE who you may not know.

20. Avoided a family affair, perhaps: ELOPED. Very nice clue/fill.

21. Fabled beast: ASS. I wonder which one this refers to? Buridan's Ass?

22. Golden __: AGER. That's us, baby.

23. Carefree adventure: LARK. Not sure why, but this popped into my head. 

24. Little tunneler: ANT. Hey, John Lampkin how are you?

25. "The L Word" co-creator Chaiken: ILENE. I did not know of this successful PRODUCER with a varied background from the Fresh Prince of Belair to Empire and Stumptown.

26. Giant among Giants: OTT. A nice clue for some old-time crossword glue.

27. Alicia Keys record label: RCA. Who really knows or cares? I think she is very talented and attractive but who buys records?

29. Without markup: AT COST.

34. Checked the latest blog entry, say: READ A POST. A nice CSO to each and every one of you.

39. Gershwin classic: SWANEE. The PERFORMANCE is very un-pc.

41. Ike's WWII command: ETO. European Theater of Operations. (Thank you anon. Sometimes I forget what I am doing. Comes with age)

42. Prefix with laryngology: OTO.

43. Throws the game: TANKS. No doubt written for all the Dolphin fans. Of course, they ruined their perfect season by beating the Jets last Sunday.

44. O'er and o'er: OFT. Archaic synonyms.

46. Thunderstruck: AWED.

47. Synagogue storage cabinets: ARKS. Where the Torahs stay when not in use. A nice one at our synagogue.

48. T'ai __: CHI. Tai chi, short for T'ai chi ch'üan or Tàijí quán, is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for both its defense training, its health benefits, and meditation.

49. Compassionate words: WE CARE. Do you really?

51. TX library honoree: LBJ. There are a few.

54. "Don't Bring Me Down" gp.: ELOElectric Light Orchestra.



55. Fur-loving de Vil: CRUELLA. Do you like the Emma Stone version?


56. "Who __?": New Orleans Saints chant: DAT. The entire chant is: "Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?" "Who dat" may also be used as a noun, describing a Saints fan.






57. Lee follower: REB. R.E. LEE, makes sense.

58. Beach pest: SANDFLY. Rhymes with...

59. "You __ devil!": SLY.

Down:

1. Visit the engine room, perhaps: GO BELOW. A CSO to Spitzboov and others.

2. Put on a pedestal: ADULATE. A word directly from Latin meaning to fawn over, praise (someone) excessively or obsequiously. It probably is not as familiar to your ear as ADULATION but it is the same thing.

3. Sharp answers: RETORTS. Which has nothing to do with TORTS? How can we re-tort anyway? Nero Wolfe solved one of his cases when the young killer fell for, "So have they taught you how to draft a tort yet?

4. Head for the hills: FLEE.

5. Frying medium: LARD. Two weeks in a row with pork fat.

6. It's NW of QWERTY: ESC. Literal look at the keyboard.

7. Allen of Vermont: ETHAN. Furniture guru? A fellow Connecticut boy, Ethan Allen was born in 1738 in Litchfield, Connecticut. He fought in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. He shares his BIRTHDAY with the Corner. 

8. "See the ___ clear'd, and then we will depart": "King Henry VI": COAST. JW's weekly Will Shakespeare clue. Act I, Scene 3.
Lord Mayor of London.
See the coast clear'd, and then we will depart.
Good God, these nobles should such stomachs bear!
I myself fight not once in forty year.

9. Grandson of Adam: ENOS. Enos or Enosh (Hebrew: אֱנוֹשׁ ʾĔnōš; "mortal man." Son of Seth.

10. __ Arc, Arkansas: DES. The obscure Friday clue. Thank you for the perps.

11. Require for success: HINGE ON. Hinge is back without any dating app.

12. Ones from afar: ALIENS. Another interesting word that can mean someone from 50 miles away in Mexico or from light-years away on Alpha Centauri.

13. It may be hard to keep: SECRET. Generally bad for all involved.

18. State hwy., often: TPK. Turnpike. For you young'uns an expressway, especially one on which a toll is charged.

22. "Jo's Boys" author: ALCOTT. I recently reread Little Women, but not any of the sequels.

24. "Storage Wars" network: A AND E. Arts and Entertainment kept only its acronym.

25. "I speak the truth": IT IS SO. Make it so is more familiar to me.


27. Brand munched by E.T.: REESES. Pieces. We all know that during the production of E.T., Amblin Productions approached Mars, Inc. about a possible tie-in between M and Ms and the film. For whatever reason, Mars said “No” to the proposition.

28. Want badly: CRAVE. Want some M and Ms?

31. Boxer's boxers: TRUNKS. Cute clue. Is it your clue Jeffrey? I’m pleased to say that this is my clue.  I’m quite happy that Rich used it.  However, moving on... 

32. Gold __: BAR. Very random- -BUG, CUP, BAR... this is not mine. I loved "[Where a priest and a rabbi might share a joke?]." Too many words? 

33. Agitated: UPSET.

35. Many a heist: BANK JOB.


36. E.M. Forster's "__ End": HOWARDS. No apostrophe.


37. Opposite of momentary: ETERNAL.

38. Reason for a cover-up?: MODESTY.  Do you all recall BLAISE?

39. Less fresh: STALER. Meh.

40. Emulate a nightingale: WARBLE. Maybe "(of a person) sing in a trilling or quavering voice."

44. "Whoop-de-doo": OH FUN.  Is this serious or sarcastic?

45. Played a piccolo-like instrument: FIFED. (verb) ARCHAIC -play the fife.

46. Needle front?: ACU. This was very hard to parse. Once the lightbulb came on with acupuncture, it seemed so right.

48. "Downton Abbey" countess: CORA.
countess cora

49. Deftly: WELL.

50. StubHub parent: EBAY. They bought the ticket exchange company for $310,000,000.00 in 2007. Now the PLAN has changed.

52. IV units: CCS. Also measured in mLS, milliliters. They have a one to one ratio. These are cousins of milihelens, for those who remember.

53. 2003 holiday film: ELF. We end with an early Christmas reference to a new classic.




I had a very nice time as we were led on a wonderful JW treasure hunt, unlocking little gems along the way. The solve took a bit longer than usual but I did keep distracting myself, chasing down rabbit holes. We are supposed to get our first "cold spell" nothing in the 80s! Life is hard. Thank you, Jeffrey and all who read. Lemonade out.


45 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought ETO stood for European Theater of Operations.

Lemonade714 said...

Thank you. Corrected.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but erased riled for UPSET and ably for WELL. Too many unknowns to mention, but typical of a JeffWech special, the well-placed perps permitted me to play.

How to southern folks know that the Wise Men smelled like smoke? Because the Wise Men came from afar.

SAND gnats is the name of the Savannah minor league baseball team. I think SAND FLYs are the same critter. Not to be confused with SAND fleas, which are crustaceans,

I liked CC'S explicit CSO today.

Thanks to JeffWech for another fine challenge. And thanks to Lemony for the tour. BTW, that's NOT Justin Trudeau pictured in the SWANEE link.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Wow, I think that's twice this week. D-o got the extra B theme, and even noticed that the words all began with U (as does d-o's name). Very clever, JW. Enjoyed the tour, Lemonade. (Yes, it's sarcastic. My oldest brother used to say, "Well, whoop-de-doo!" when he wasn't impressed. It was shortly after Perry Como's hit song, which wasn't sarcastic.)

MODESTY: Never heard of Blaise, at least not that I recall.

CCS: SO to our lady of the blog.

ENOS: First chimp to orbit the earth, and second chimp in space.

Anonymous said...

Needed almost 16 minutes to finish this fine puzzle.
I really wanted "ICU" for "needle front" and simply couldn't see how iwed or I wed equaled "thunderstruck." I'm team Wechsler on the clue for "bar."

inanehiker said...

Fun morning combo of of the "J"s - Jason and Jeff!
I love the JW theme - with good fill that wasn't sacrificed for the theme.
Lemonade gave me a stroll down memory lane with the link to "Don't Bring
Me Down"- I haven't heard that in many years but still know all the words
and ready to dance from college days- definitely my earworm for the morning!

OwenKL said...

FLN: I did have to look up the Aries story. The one I finally found (after wading thru a plethora of pages of astrology garbage) focused on the children who were rescued. I retold it in my poem, giving the kids short shrift. I thought it was cruel of Phrixus to sacrifice the ram that had saved him and tried to save his sister. And I hadn't known Aries was the source of the GOLDEN FLEECE.

Anonymous said...

Fun puzzle today. Is there something about Des Arc that would lead to a non-Arkansan having heard of it? I don't mind obscure Friday clues, but this seems really obscure (the town has fewer than 2000 people), and there are lots of other ways to clue DES.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Well, the Wordplay Wizard is back with his trademark trickery! Yay, yay, and yay! Having Butter Chaos already filled in, the Aha moment came at Western Bunion, which brought a chuckle, as well as revealing the theme. I don't think I had any w/os but perps were needed for: Ilene, Coast, as clued, Des, and Cora. ETO and OTO side by side was noted, as was the 2/2 placement of the Bs. My favorite C/A was Reason for a coverup=Modesty and my favorite themer was Butter Chaos.

Thanks, Jeffrey, for lots of Friday fun solving your puzzle and thanks, Lemony, for the many of learning moments in your review. I think I've heard of Modesty Blaise, but knew nothing of her origin or background, nor that she was a cartoon character.

FLN

Wilbur, you shouldn't be surprised by my ignorance of Troi or Eloi, as my SciF exposure (and interest) is zero. 🙊

It's 23 degrees here this morning, a tad cold for Novemer 8th, IMO. Guess the faux fur jacket comes out of hibernation, ready or not!

Is anyone watching a new show called Bluff City Law? I'm enjoying it, mainly because I'm being reacquainted with Jimmy Smits' fine acting abilities.

Have a great day.

Anonymous said...

Fifteen minutes to complete a Friday Jeffrey Wechsler!! I have amazed myself!!

TTP said...


Picked up the added letter early with BUTTER CHAOS, which was my favorite. Then confirmed it would be an added B with the second theme entry. Fun stuff. Thank you, Jeffrey, and thank you, Lemonade.

Jeno's pizza rolls ? Those and Tostino's pizza rolls were yuck.

Who buys records ? Audiophile purists, I would think.

Listen, do you want to know a secret ? Do you promise not to tell ? Closer. Let me whisper in your ear.

Who dat ! The command I gave to my boy to be on alert. Impressive GSD.

Retorts ? The sonic repercussions of musket and cannon fire.

The Bank Job... I thought it was a remake, but I was thinking of The Italian Job, starring Michael Caine.

Have only seen a few minutes of Dour Abbey, but given its popularity, it was just a matter of time until characters in the show would start appearing in crosswords, just like TROI, another unknown. I'm going to rely on perps. As Irish Miss said, "...no interest..."

OwenKL said...

TOTAL CONFUSION AT THE CREAMERY
Happened when the milking machinery
Got drunk on some wine
And drank a whole-stein,
Then udder CHAOS ruled the scenery!

When the GOLDEN AGERS ELOPED
It didn't go quite as they hoped.
A walker's not fine
For a ladder-ly climb,
And their license, for age, was revoked!

billocohoes said...

I guessed 21A refers to Balaam's ASS, see the Book of Numbers in your ARKS.

Yellowrocks said...

Most of this was solved as fast as I could write. I suspected the theme was the added B with BUTTER and it proved out. Early this morning my garage door opener stopped working, so I was solving this until the repair company opened for business. Then I was sidetracked because my long time company apparently has moved and I had to find someone else. I lost my mojo, but finally HINGE was my hinge to solving the tricky NE. This was an easy puzzle with a fun theme.
Jeff, so nice to hear from you. I, too, liked your BAR clue best.
Modesty reminds me of yesterday's discussion.
OKL, I loved your poem about the Golden Fleece yesterday.
All this year I have been hearing that records are making a big comeback.
Vinyl Comeback

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

A delicious, entertaining cw from JW today. Got the N and W easily, but had to work a bit on the rest. IT IS SO that I got the theme early, so that helped. CSO to jfromvt and others on ETHAN. Lucky with WAGs - CRUELLA, DAT, ELO.
Lemon - Nice write-up and explanation of the theme.
GO BELOW - In our context it usually mean to go below the main deck, typically to the berthing or messing spaces. Other locales would be more specific; ie. forward fire room or 'sonar'. But as a general clue, it is fine.
AGER -

"The Golden Years Have Come At Last

I cannot see I cannot pee.
I cannot chew I cannot scr**.
My memory shrinks my hearing stinks.
No sense of smell I look like hell.
My bodies drooping I got trouble pooping.
The Golden Years Have Come At Last.
The Golden Years Can Kiss My ASS."

desper-otto said...

YR, if your in-garage button still works the problem isn't the opener. Step one should be to replace the battery (usually a quarter-sized coin battery) in the remote. Open the remote to be certain. You can buy those batteries at the drug store.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

The only Blaise I know is Blaise Pascal, the 17th century mathematician / physicist. My favorite quote from him:

"Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give him too much, the same."

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

Thanks Jeff and Lemonade for a slow start puzzle and a great tour. I couldn't get a foothold for a long time. I walked away to do a load of wash and a few other chores. I returned with new eyes.

Busy day. Hope to check back later.

Thanks, all. Smile wherever you are--sunshine or no.

Anonymous said...

Lemon - the connection between Lark and Jeno's is that both used the William Tell Overture in advertising.

Lark Cigarettes - "Have a Lark, have a Lark, have a Lark today...."
Jeno's - "Have a pizza, pizza, pizza roll....".

Thanks to Jeff and Lemonade.

Yellowrocks said...

I just found that my garage door opener is about 30 years old. It still runs okay and moves the door, but it will not let the door close the last two feet. The flat metal piece that leads from the motor to the door is cracked almost through. I actually heard it crack when I opened the door. I was lucky to get my car out and that the apparatus didn't fall on it. The door itself, the track and springs are new. As long as I have to get a new flat piece I will get a new motor, too. I probably should have done this last year along with the new door.
I had my computer fixed this Wednesday under my Geek Squad membership, but had to pay for a drive to load my data onto while the computer was being reset.
Alan broke the screen on his cell phone and got a new one under the extended warranty. It has conked out three times just a day or two after being reset. Now I have to argue that it is a lemon and insist on its being replaced with another phone.
That's my three problems in a row. I hope this is my LAST ONE.

Spitz, The Golden Years. LOL. Ain't it the truth?

CartBoy said...

Why does it feel like I just won game 7 of the World Series when I correctly solve a JW puzzle?

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-BUTTER CH _ _ _ ? Uh, not CHURN! What a fun gimmick.
-An ASS in an Aesop fable (1:14)
-Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels in a commercial? Fabulous!
-Gershwin lifted lyrics from Stephen Foster’s Old Folks At Home for his Swanee River and also changed SUWANEE River to SWANEE
-My diet would go better if I didn’t CRAVE potato chips, sticks, fries, tots…
-Cora represents wealthy American women who actually married English “nobility” who were nearly broke but offered a title

Lucina said...

Hola!

Yea for a Friday Jeff Wechsler puzzle! I hope it isn't the LAST ONE.

The all-white surface seemed daunting until I began filling it and saw the theme, too.

LARD to me means tamales and we already have a date for them, Saturday the 23rd.

How I loved reading Louisa May ALCOTT's books.

A learning moment for me, E-Bay owns StubHub, neither of which I've ever used.

Yes, vinyl records are coming back. My 16 year old granddaughter bought herself a record player and records are often on her wish lists.

I liked the clue for TRUNKS.

Downton Abbey, the movie, was really good and of course, CORA and all the rest were charming.

Thank you, Jeff and Lemonade for entertaining us today!

Have a great day, everyone!

Misty said...

I love Jeffrey Wechsler puzzles--even Friday ones, which are bound to be a little tougher. But I got the whole northwest corner plus lots of other areas here and there before needing a bit of help. Nice to see CORA and CRUELLA--pretty different personalities. MODESTY as 'reason for a cover-up' was a cute item. And I also enjoyed ELOPED for 'avoiding a family affair.' Anyway, lots of fun--many thanks, Jeffrey. And of course your write-up is always a pleasure, Lemonade.

Have a good Friday, everybody.

Lemonade714 said...

Anon 10:09 - the connection of the William Tell Overture was why I linked the Geno's commercial. It has special meaning for me because both our Rabbi and our Cantor like that tune when we close our Friday night service with the HYMN -ADON OLAM . This is common in modern synagogues and is much fun.

Lemonade714 said...

And of course, I love seeing Clayton Moore chastise both Genos and Lark for stealing his theme song.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Almost a Ta ~ DA!, but short because I entered FUR instead of BAR for 32D.
How else did that mess me up? Well, it gave me WESTERN FUNION--which I think is a real hoot!
All in all, a delightful Wechsler experience.

I wondered why 46D "Needle front?" wasn't clued as "Needle point?"
As humor--as wit--wouldn't that have been sharper?
~ OMK
____________
DR:
A single diag on the mirror end.
A curious anagram today. We all know of the “tip jar,” right?
Then there is the “swear jar,” into which everyone must deposit a fixed sum of money each time they let an obscenity issue from their lips.
Well, now we have a new wrinkle. This vessel sits on a shelf at your place of employment. It aims to increase health and reduce sick days by requiring a deposit each time you take time off because of an ailment. We call it the…
ILLNESSES JAR”!
Yes. We do.

Hungry Mother said...

Definitely a fun them and puzzle. Mostly wordplay with minimal trivia. No trivia would really make me happy.. I've always preferred problem solving to memorization.

Nick Helm said...

I needed a password eight characters long, so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Lemonade714 said...

NH, pretty funny

SwampCat said...

What can I say? It was all just too wonderful...but not unexpected. Thanks, Jeffrey! I got the gimmick at BUTTER CHAOS, which just dredges up delicious images.

I loved the sound of ALCOTT crossing AT COST. Not reason. It just made me smile.

Spitz, I know GO BELOW is not official-ese. But it conjured up for me memories of HMS Pinafore where the Admiral ...”When the breezes blow, I generally go below...”. So much fun satire and good memories.

And of course I will gratefully take a CSO at WHO DAT! Thanks, Jeffrey! I’ll have to share the CSO I guess, but there’s enough enthusiasm to go around. Lemonade, you outdid yourself printing the whole chant. I’m in your debt.

SwampCat said...

Owen, thanks for both today’s CREAMERY and yesterday’s GOLDEN FLEECE.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Thanks you JW for handing me my hat again. I bollixed the central and NE by misreading the clues and have a huge inkblot in the middle. Took me forever to unravel that ++ cheat at ILENE to extend play. HAS AN OUT was barely parse-able.

Gold BAR = Green Paint. That's on Rich :-)

Fun illustrated expo Lem. I recall that pizza roll commercial and I enjoyed the side-links too.

WOs: it wasn't wEnt badly @28a, REEcES isn't spelt that way, it was GOLD not GOLDEN for 'boy' at 32d. it's NIC not NIk.
tOWARDS End was right out as was trying to RE??fresh? the blog.
ESPs: yeah, kinda felt like most c/as. JW's that good.

Fav: OH FUN. I say that all the time esp. when someone clicks shit they shouldn't and I know I'm in for a day of work. Why? Because WE CARE.
Runner-up: Who DAT?

Ah, that explains it OKL. Good work. {A, A+}
OMK - DR is especially funny to me. As we approach the end of the year, the team is trying to figure out how to burn vacation / floating holiday time. We joked with one colleague that he's gaming his sick time* too :-)

HG - Some may consider your Aesop link political :-)

YR - Yep, that's three. You're done for now.
I, too, found the NE the hardest to crack; I was finally let in on the SECRET.

Spitz - only my eyes are going now (I also read "without mAkeup") but, if your second line is true, send me to my maker; there's no point...

SANDFLYs / gnats / whatever were the biggest bugaboo for my buddy who was actually in Theater of Operations during Desert Storm - he didn't like chigg-away because of the sulfur smell.

Play later (HINGEs ON a nap)., Cheers! -T
*we get 4+ weeks vacation w/ 1 week carry-over, 5 floating holidays, and 2 weeks sick. Sick is for "you be sick" and can't come in; basically days you didn't declare on the team calendar 'cuz you didn't know you'd be broken/ill.

Brian said...

CC has today's USA Today Crossword.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle.

Yellowrocks said...

I have discovered that Google found my name, email, picture and birthday from this blog. Scary.

Bill G said...

Hi everybody. The neighbors two houses east of us are having some tree work done. Is there any sound more annoying and irritating than the whining of a chainsaw? Maybe a mosquito in the middle of the night? Aargh!

Anonymous T said...

OK - someone help me...
I chased a rabbit down a hole and my Google-Fu [CHI?] is getting weak.

Frank Bonner (of Herb/WKRP fame) was, I think, in a parody talk show spoof. The spoof show was at a fictional mid-market TV station that "tried" to put on a late-night show. I want to say it was called "America Tonight" or some such.
Anyone recall this? The name of the show? It was in the late '70s or mid-'80s IIRC.

Please, anyone? It's driving me nuts. -T

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Fernwood 2-Night, with Harry Kine and the Mirthmakers? Martin Mull was the host, I think frank was "Ed McMahon".

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Spinoff of my ATF TV show, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.

Anonymous T said...

Jinx - Yes! and with apologists to Fred Willard for confusing him with Frank Bonner. Mull was disturbingly hilarious. Thanks for putting it to rest.

For those on The Fringe The worst of Fernwood 2-Night.

Cheers, -T

Picard said...

Hand up with AnonT I misread it WeNT BADLY which delayed getting BUS VERSUS THEM. FIR after way too long.

Lemonade thank you for the review and thank you for giving Picard another appearance.

From yesterday:
It was indeed a treat to see PICARD and his lovely and empathic counselor TROI appear. Thank you for all of the greetings and kind words about my photos!

I have only ever been to one Star Trek convention. It was back in 1994. A good friend took me and my then girlfriend to this huge convention center somewhere in Los Angeles. In addition to hundreds of eager fans there were some big stars from the show. One was James Doohan who played Scotty. Another was Marina Sirtis who played TROI.

Here are some of my photos of Marina Sirtis/TROI on stage and signing autographs.

There is also a photo of me with a fan dressed as a Klingon.

From the previous day:
Lucina thanks for reminding me you live in Scottsdale, AZ. I had a wonderful time at some of the museums in Phoenix as well as my time hiking in Sedona.

Have you visited the Musical Instruments Museum? What a unique and educational place. And have you been to the Fireflies mirror room at the top of the Phoenix Museum of Art? Quite a magical experience.

Lucina said...

Picard:
I'm glad you enjoyed your visit to Phoenix and Sedona and hope you also went to the Heard Museum. It's a world class museum of Native American arts and crafts.

I have been to the MIM but not recently to the Phoenix Museum of Art so have not seen the Fireflies mirror room. It sounds intriguing and I shall have to plan a visit soon.

Picard said...

Lucina glad you have been to MIM. Yes, I did indeed also visit the Heard Museum. The featured tour when I was there was of the Native American "dolls" which took an extraordinary amount of time to create.

Yes, I definitely recommend the Fireflies mirror room. The artist Yayoi Kusama created a similar installation at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles. We went there twice and were never able to get in to see it (though we did see a smaller installation there). You are very fortunate that her Phoenix creation is much easier to experience. I even went through it three times!

Abejo said...

Good evening, folks. Thank you, Jeffrey Wechsler, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.

Well, I am late reporting in. Busy day.

Did the puzzle. Got it. Caught the theme, adding a B. Worked out.

Unknown was ILENE at 25A. Perps. CORA at 48D. Perps. HOWARDS @ 36D. Perps.

Enjoyed this puzzle. I bounced around a bit got a word here and there. Finally I was done. Jeff Wechsler is my hero.

I am going to bed. See you tomorrow.

Abejo

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